[Update: Added in more information on the MSI bundles, available through May 15th.]

Tonight's red post collection includes discussion on the recently debuted Ekko: Seconds teaser, ricklessabandon noting he has a few Karma changes headed to the PBE, Meddler commenting on Ryze buffs following his gameplay update in 5.8, a reminder that the MSI Mystery Gift bonus is live and a look at the MSI bundles in the shop, info on the LAN/LAS beta test of an out of client shop to purchase skins and champions, and more!

Karma Changes to PBE soon

ricklessabandon has also tweeted out that he will have a few Karma changes up on the PBE soon:

"whew…finally done with scripting!

hoping to get some karma changes onto the pbe this week now that she's a little easier to work on for me~"

When asked for more info, he continued

[1] "um, lots of details that i'm too tired to go into right now, but tl;dr some scaling buffs + changes to mantra effects for w + e."

[2] "the goal is to make her feel better as a support, so hopefully stronger!"

[3] "looking at buffing late game, as well as changing mantra for w and e. more details when she's on pbe"

Meddler on Ryze

When asked if there are any plans for Ryze following his gamepaly update in patch 5.8, Meddler noted:

"Quote

So obviously Ryze's winrate has plummeted since the rework, and is now the absolute lowest of any champion in the game. Which might be an indication that he is undertuned, or an indication that people have no idea how to play him, or maybe some of both. Personally I'm betting on that third option. There's no changes to him on the PBE, presumably because Riot wanted to give people time to learn and make adjustments. Has it been long enough?

Since I haven't seen any Rioters say anything about Ryze since he came out, I'd love to hear someone's thoughts on him. Is he weak right now, and how would you go about buffing him? Any chance we'll see tweaks in 5.10?

Probably both is our assessment. We're talking about possible buffs for 5.10 at the moment."

"We're on the same page regarding major reworks, in that they introduce enough change that there's going to be a readjustment period and that means a champion's performance is going to drop for a while. For that reason we didn't look at making any Ryze changes in 5.9 - we wanted to give things a bit of time to settle down. Now that we've got a couple of weeks of play to assess however it's a good time to see where Ryze is up to and then make changes as appropriate.

It is possible that he's in a good spot already, and that's something the folks working on him will be considering. Looking at how he's performed so far however, and how that change in performance over time compares to other champions that have started off performing poorly but become really effective when mastered, I suspect we'll make the call to put power into him sometime soon. As with any buff it's conceivable that'll take a balanced character and make them too strong, that needs to be weighed against the risk of leaving a champion significantly underpowered however, which is also a real cost to the game (particularly players of Ryze and other players on their team)."

Champion Mastery Tidbits

In a reddit thread inquiring about the possibility of adding each game's grade to the match history rather than only on the post game screen, Socratescommented:

"We wanted to take a pretty safe approach with how we did grades in the initial release (opt in to see, only viewable at game end, only viewable to yourself, etc) since we wanted to get a feel for reactions to the feature. Given all the interest its likely we will be exploring ways of making the performance grades a deeper and more persistent experience.

How else would you like to see these used?"

As for why the champion mastery emote is not visible to the enemy team, Riot Mirrossnoted:

"We were on the fence on this, and whether to show it to the enemy team, and could change it in future.

The reasons against were dubious upside (another BM tool) and some (solvable) issues around using it to confuse team fights or hide objectives, but the upside of being able to show off your progress at the right time is certainly cool."

When asked about the ranking system and why only have an absurdly high kill / death / assist ration isn't enough to net a S+ ranking, Socrates replied:

"This is likely because of your performance in other areas. It's based on more than KDA since KDA doesn't really give you a complete picture of performance."

"S- is a really solid grade. It's based on your position and champion vs everybody else on the server. So of all the players who played that champion in that position you performed in the 3rd highest category.

That said, S+ is really hard to get for the same reason. The only ones we saw consistently getting S+ were challenger / master players though most players can get one occasionally."

MSI Mystery Gift Bonus Live through May 15th

Following a Baron steal during the SKT vs FNATIC game during the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational, a Mystery Gift bonus has been activated through May 15th!

"Did you watch the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational? Did you catch that Fnatic got a Baron steal against SKT on May 8th? This action triggered a Mystery Gift opportunity that now doubles your chance to unlock esports team (Fnatic, TPA, SKT, or SSW*), championship, and legendary skins until May 15.

If you’ve wanted to unlock that esports skin, it’s time to try out Mystery Gifting before this opportunity is gone. Don’t forget to send your thanks to Fnatic for unlocking this esports special on Mystery Gifting at the Mid-Season Invitational.

*SSW skins do not become part of this Mystery Gifting opportunity until they are unlocked on May 14."

"We’re celebrating the conclusion and champions of the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) with limited-time bundles and a celebration sale until May 15th:

2015 MSI Winners - 50% off at 2099 RP (3545 RP if you need the champions)

Edward Gaming, the champions of Mid-Season Invitational, used these champions to defeat some of the world’s top talent. Maybe, it’ll work out just as well for you in solo queue and your adventures on the Rift.